This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: MSNBC
July 3, 2011
It may not be a $500 million golden hoard, but underwater archaeologists are nevertheless excited about finding what they believe are traces of the five ships that British privateer Henry Morgan lost off the coast of Panama in 1671.The discovery was made at the mouth of Panama's Chagres River, near another underwater site where six iron cannons were found. Taken together, the evidence suggests that the three-century-old story of Captain Morgan's lost fleet is finally near its conclusion. By the time he died in 1688, Morgan was seen as one of the most bloodthirsty (and most successful) pirates in the Americas. His exploits inspired enough pirate tales to fill a dead man's chest, including the Errol Flynn movie "Captain Blood" and the James Bond novel "Live and Let Die."
Source: BBC
August 4, 2011
A chance discovery of coins has led to the bigger find of a Roman town, further west than it was previously thought Romans had settled in England.
The town was found under fields a number of miles west of Exeter, Devon.
Nearly 100 Roman coins were initially uncovered there by two amateur archaeological enthusiasts.
It had been thought that fierce resistance from local tribes to Roman culture stopped the Romans from moving so far into the county.
Sam Moorhead, national finds adviser for Iron Age and Roman coins for the PAS at the British Museum, said it was one of the most significant Roman discoveries in the country for many decades....
Source: ABC News
August 4, 2011
One of the worst droughts in Texas history is helping archaeologists unearth a small piece of American history, a graveyard for freed slaves.
While the heat may be taking a toll on crops, livestock and people's livelihoods, it has helped archaeologists uncover two graves that are believed to have been buried for more than a century.
Cemeteries were marked and moved before the Richland Chambers Reservoir in Navarro County, Texas, was filled in the 1980s, but this small cemetery without tombstones went unnoticed.
Human remains were initially discovered in 2009 by boaters when the water level was low, but the water rose quickly and archaeologists and historians have been waiting ever since for the reservoir to reveal the cemetery again....
Source: Live Science
August 4, 2011
It's not easy to study the elderly in a society where life was all too often cut short by disease, childbirth and injuries. But new research on people living in the Bronze Age suggests the elderly began to gain power over a 600-year period in Austria.
The findings rely on skeletal aging and a comparison of objects placed in graves of individuals of different ages. As time passed in the small farming hamlets of lower Austria, researchers reported online July 15 in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, older men began to be buried with copper axes, a privilege not granted to younger men.
Source: BBC
August 7, 2011
The tail wheel of a WWII Spitfire has finally made it home to the runway it took off from 70 years ago.
In 1941 an American RAF pilot was returning to base after an afternoon sortie when he had to jettison from his Spitfire as its engines failed.
The pilot landed safely, just 13 miles from his intended destination - RAF Eglinton, now City of Derry airport.
His spitfire crashed into the peat bog of the Inishowen peninsula, County Donegal, and remained there until earlier this summer....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 7, 2011
Nearly 500 years after Florence ditched Michelangelo’s grand design for the exterior of San Lorenzo Basilica, the city’s mayor wants to finally realise the artist’s vision.
It is one of the oddest looking churches in Europe, its rough, unfinished facade of bricks resembling giant slabs of crumbling biscuits.
Matteo Renzi has called for a referendum to be held in which Florentines can vote on whether to dust off plans for the church’s facade which last saw the light of day in 1515, when they were presented by Michelangelo to Pope Leo X, one of the Medici popes.
The project was shelved by the pontiff because of concerns over cost - Michelangelo wanted to use expensive Carrara marble rather than cheaper marble from the hills near Florence.
Source: WaPo
August 4, 2011
They came from as far away as Hawaii, silver-haired heroes converging on their nation’s capital to celebrate their place in history.But the fact that there were so many fewer of them this year was painfully obvious to the heroes.They once numbered 15,000 — 992 pilots, 200 navigators, bombardiers and administrators, as well as legions of crew members and support and medical personnel who came to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen.Seventy years later, their ranks have fallen precipitously. Only a few more than 100 of the “originals” from the Tuskegee days were among those who came to Washington this week for the 40th annual convention of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. at National Harbor’s Gaylord hotel.“We are losing so many that it is hard to keep track,” said Col. Charles H. McGee, 91, of Bethesda, who is perhaps the most famous of them and has logged more combat hours (1,151) than any U.S. pilot.McGee and the rest of the Tuskegee Airmen were pioneering aviators who broke the color barrier for black pilots in the U.S. military during World War II....
Source: NYT
August 4, 2011
Double dip may be back.It has been three decades since the United States suffered a recession that followed on the heels of the previous one. But it could be happening again. The unrelenting negative economic news of the past two weeks has painted a picture of a United States economy that fell further and recovered less than we had thought....If this is the beginning of a new double dip, it will have two significant things in common with the dual recessions of 1980 and 1981-82.In each case the first recession was caused in large part by a sudden withdrawal of credit from the economy. The recovery came when credit conditions recovered.And in each case the second recession began at a time when the usual government policies to fight economic weakness were deemed unavailable. Then, the need to fight inflation ruled out an easier monetary policy. Now, the perceived need to reduce government spending rules out a more accommodating fiscal policy....
Source: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
August 4, 2011
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today welcomed the White House announcement of a new presidential directive aimed at strengthening the U.S. government’s ability to prevent genocide and mass atrocities.“This directive has the potential to save countless lives in the future,” said Tom Bernstein, Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. “Tragically, during the Holocaust, no such mechanisms existed, and in the many decades since then, the United States and other governments have lacked the policies, structures and political will to prevent such unspeakable crimes from being committed again. Today’s presidential directive is an important step that the U.S. is taking toward realizing the vision of Never Again,” he continued.
Source: NYT
August 3, 2011
ON this summer afternoon, the Andy Warhol’s New York City Tour does not begin at any location where the artist lived, worked or partied. Instead, it starts at 1060 Park Avenue.That is where Truman Capote was living with his mother in 1952, and where a young worshipper from Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol, could once be spotted, standing outside.“Capote was an overnight sensation,” said Thomas Kiedrowski, the tour guide. “Andy Warhol was thinking, ‘This guy has my life.’ So Andy did what he could to be friends with Capote. He sent him postcards. He became friends with Capote’s mother. I could just see Warhol lingering here, waiting to meet him.”To say that Mr. Kiedrowski has a passion for all things Warhol would be an understatement. Bald and beaming, he owns close to 175 books about the artist, who would have turned 83 on Saturday. He has just published his own addition to the pile: “Andy Warhol’s New York City: Four Walks, Uptown to Downtown.” Vito Giallo, who ran an antiques store frequented by Warhol, contributed illustrations....
Source: NYT
August 3, 2011
SEATTLE — Marla Cooper stepped forward Wednesday to claim that her uncle Lynn Doyle Cooper was the famed “D. B. Cooper” who mesmerized the world by hijacking a plane almost 40 years ago and bailing out somewhere over the rugged terrain of southwest Washington. His body was never found.If Ms. Cooper is correct, it could mean that the hijacker survived the jump from 10,000 feet and that a four-decade-old mystery is solved.Or not.After Ms. Cooper told her story to ABC News and CNN, law enforcement officials advised caution. Over the past 40 years, they said, many similar accounts have been reported. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has received tips on more than 1,000 suspects in the case and has yet to find a lead that pans out....
Source: BBC
August 3, 2011
A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found.
But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough.
The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists.
The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves.
The study is published in the open access journal Plos One..... .....
Source: BBC
August 2, 2011
...As the Soviet Union consolidated its control on Sakhalin in the late 1940s, life was extremely difficult for the Japanese citizens left behind. The Furihato family lived in one room in an old barracks.
Occasionally, by agreement, the Japanese government would send a ship to collect some stranded citizens, but the Furihatos were often unaware of the sailings.
On one occasion they did hear about a boat, but one of the children had a badly broken leg and could not travel. Ms Furihato's mother, Yo, decided that all the family should stay behind.
Sakhalin is no longer a flashpoint in Russia-Japan relations, but the two countries are still locked in a poisonous dispute over some of the islands in the nearby Kuril chain. Sakhalin's prospects have been severely hampered by the row.
Transport links between Japan and Sakhalin are few - just two flights and two ferries a week in summer. And trade in the area is limited - consisting mostly of natural gas going from Russia to Japan, and old ships piled high with used cars going in the other direction....
Source: BBC
August 3, 2011
A Dundee student is going on a quest to find a legendary Incan city of gold that has been eluding explorers for hundreds of years.
Ken Gawne, from Northern Ireland, will be part of a four-man team searching for Paititi on a journey through remote Peruvian rainforest.
According to legend, Paititi is where the Incas hid their treasures from the Spanish conquistadors.
The explorers will spend three weeks in Peru looking for the lost city.
The trip is the latest in a series of adventures for Mr Gawne, 28, who has been on an expedition to China and crossed the Sahara Desert in west Africa - using the journeys to make an Indiana Jones tribute film called Treasure of the Templars.
The Dundee University psychology student said the plan to look for Paititi came from a conversation with his Norfol
Source: BBC
August 3, 2011
France has confirmed it will extradite Manuel Noriega to Panama, where he is wanted over human rights violations during his rule in the 1980s.
The former Panamanian military leader is currently serving a prison sentence in France for money laundering.
Prior to that, he spent 20 years in prison in the US after being convicted there of drug-trafficking charges.
It is expected that Noriega will be sent next month to Panama, where courts have already convicted him in absentia.
He was found guilty of three charges of human rights violations. Each conviction carried a 20-year prison sentence.
The 77 year old will have a month to launch an appeal to prevent his extradition. However, his lawyer has said he wants to return to Panama.....
Source: BBC
August 2, 2011
Four former Guatemalan soldiers have been sentenced to life in prison for the massacre of more than 200 people during the country's civil conflict.
The court said the four had committed crimes against humanity when they were part of a counter-insurgency unit which carried out the killings in the village of Dos Erres in 1982.
They received a sentence of 30 years for each of the 201 victims.
They are the first former soldiers to be convicted for human-rights abuses.
Daniel Martinez, Manuel Pop Sun, and Reyes Collin Gualip were sentenced to 6,060 years in prison each for murder and crimes against humanity...
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 3, 2011
In a twist the Master of Suspense himself would have been proud of Alfred Hitchcock's earliest surviving movie has been found languishing in a vault in New Zealand.
All copies of The White Shadow, a silent feature film released by Hollywood in 1924, had been thought lost to posterity, and cinema historians have described the discovery as "priceless".
Three dusty reels containing the first half of the film – about 30 minutes of footage – had been stored deep in the bowels of the New Zealand Film Archive, where the search is continuing for the other three reels.
The acclaimed director was 24 when he worked on what was billed as a "wild, atmospheric melodrama" starring actress Betty Compson as twin sisters, one angelic and the other "without a soul". He was credited as assistant director and also wrote the scenario, designed the sets and edited the footage.
At the time silent Hollywood films were distributed worldwide and, while many prints were discarded and lost in the US, others survived abroad where they were kept after runs in cinemas had finished....
Source: NYT
August 1, 2011
WASHINGTON — In a rare symbolic strike against unnecessary government secrecy, the government’s former classification czar has filed a formal complaint against the National Security Agency and Justice Department seeking punishment of officials who classified a document that he says contained no secrets.The former official, J. William Leonard, said that in his 34 years with the federal government he saw routine overclassification of government documents, rarely saw it challenged and never saw it punished. But now that the Justice Department is seeking to imprison government workers for leaking classified information to the news media, Mr. Leonard said, it is especially critical to make sure that only genuine secrets are protected by law.“If you’re talking about throwing someone in jail for years, there absolutely has to be responsibility for decisions about what gets classified,” said Mr. Leonard, who directed the Information Security Oversight Office from 2002 to 2007....
Source: NYT
August 1, 2011
PALMDALE, Calif. — Tucked away here in the Mojave Desert, the assembly plant for the high-flying Global Hawk jet resembles a giant hobby shop.Work tables surround a handful of fuselages, and an unusually long wing — needed to slip through the thin air at 60,000 feet — is ready to be bolted into place. Open panels await controls for cameras and eavesdropping gear, and bright blue tool bins and parts vats are scattered around the concrete floor.Just 50 people work in the factory and a test hangar, and only five of the drones will be built this year. But despite a spate of delays, second-guessing and cost overruns, the Global Hawk is once again on track to replace one of America’s most noted aircraft: the U-2 spy plane, famed for its role in the cold war and more recently Afghanistan....The U-2 was created in the 1950s to monitor Soviet nuclear sites. It is still used, as the Global Hawk will be, to supplement satellites by gazing into North Korea and Iran from outside their borders.
Source: Guardian (UK)
August 2, 2011
On 9 June, the General Services Administration threw Modesto's downtown post office onto the auction block. Like so many other postal facilities, the Renaissance-style palazzo had long served as an anchor for downtown stores of the California town, a public space where citizens met to exchange news as well as transact business in an ennobling lobby of polished travertine and marble beneath murals of local farming activities.The federal government once designed its post offices to elevate and inspire the public whose assets it is now selling. An architectural journal in 1918 spoke of the tutelary value of post offices:"They are generally the most important of the local buildings, and taken together, [are] seen daily by thousands, who have little opportunity to feel the influence of the great architectural works in the large cities."
